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<font size=3>At 01:35 AM 04/24/2007, Micha wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">A topic for Avodah, but I
believe the Rambam's shevil hazahav is one<br>
of utilizing both ends of the spectrum more than finding a point<br>
between them.</font></blockquote><br>
From
<a href="http://mishmar.blogspot.com/2006/08/centrism-and-extremism.html" eudora="autourl">
http://mishmar.blogspot.com/2006/08/centrism-and-extremism.html<br><br>
</a><font size=3>As the Chazon Ish (Iggeros Chazon Ish 3:61), in a letter
which is all but the antithesis of Centrism, put it:<br><br>
"Just as simplicity and truth are synonymous, so are extremism and
greatness synonymous...We are accustomed to hearing in well-known
circles, as announcing about themselves that they have no share among the
extremists, and they nevertheless reserve for the themselves the right of
(being) a loyal Jew with sufficient Emunah in Torah and the words of
Torah. And we allow ourselves to state from the vantage-point of justice,
that just as among those who love wisdom there is no love for a bit of it
and hatred of abundance of it, so too there is not among those who love
Torah and Mitzvos a love of the middling and a hatred of extremism.
<br><br>
All the fundamentals of faith, the 13 principles, and their derivatives,
are always in vigorous contradiction to easily grasped concepts and the
ebb and flow of life developed under the sun. And their clear and
justified cognition, which grants an excess of particularism in believing
in them, is the pleasantness of extremism. <br><br>
And those who testify about themselves that they have not tasted the
sweetness of extremism, are simultaneously testifying that they are
lacking in faith in the principles of the religion in terms of their
analytical prowess and emotional bonds, and only with the ropes of some
level of relationship are they tethered to them. And the extremists, at
the depths of their soul, with all of their most intense wish to pity
those lacking in extremism, will not accord respect and honor to those
who oppose them. And the abyss which divides them, when it meets with
practical actions which create, by the force of their nature, arguments
and bickering, will add to the rift incurably. <br><br>
The Beinonius which has the right of existence, is the attribute of the
Beinonim who love extremism and strive for it with all of the will of
their soul, <b>and they educate their descendants to the apex of
extremism. </b>But how pathetic is the Beinonius which has contempt for
extremism. The obligation of our Chinuch is to extremism! The armory of
Chinuch is, to plant contempt and disgust for those who mock
extremism."<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
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